Pages

Salads are always a great way to get more vegetables into your diet and I am always looking for creative ways of turning salads into light meals. Not too long ago I came across the idea of a banh mi salad on A Spicy Perspective which sounded pretty amazing given how much of a fan of banh mi sandwiches that I am and the salad would definitely eat like a meal! This salad starts out with a base of lettuce to which is added common elements of banh mi sandwiches such as cool and juicy cucumbers, sweet and salty pickled carrots and daikon radish and spicy birds eye chilies for heat. Of course this salad would not really be a light meal without some protein and chicken is always a great way to go for salads. I have always enjoyed using meat cooked in a Vietnamese caramel sauce that nicely blends aspects of sweetness, saltiness, sourness and spiciness in my banh mi sandwiches so a Vietnamese caramel chicken was definitely the way to go. With all of this the banh mi salad was just about ready; it just needed an insanely tasty banh mi dressing and the dressing had to include the final aspects of a banh mi sandwich such as the mayonnasie. (See below for the dressing.) This salad takes a bit of work to make from scratch but it is definitely worth the effort and you can make things easier by making some of the sub-recipes a day or more ahead of time. The final result is one extremely tasty salad that truly does remind you of a banh mi sandwich!

Add the banh mi dressing and toss.

Ah, I can finally enjoy a plate of this fabulously tasty salad!

Banh Mi Chicken Salad

A salad inspired by the flavours on Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches with chicken in a Vietnamese caramel sauce, lettuce, cucumber, pickled carrots and radish and a tasty dressing!

Banh Mi Dressing

Of course for a banh mi inspired salad I was going to need a banh mi inspired dressing! To me this meant including elements and flavours of a banh mi and trying to create a nice balance between sweet, salty, sour and spicy. I started out with a Vietnamese caramel sauce for the sweet and bitter elements followed by fish sauce for saltiness, lime juice for sourness and birds eye chilies for spicy the heat. I was still missing one element of a Banh mi sandwich, the mayonnaise and adding it to the dressing seemed like the perfect way to work it into the salad! I filled out the flavours of the dressing with garlic, ginger and shallots creating a super tasty dressing that really does remind one of a banh mi sandwich!

What a great recipe, Kevin. Ryan and I love Vietnamese food and banh mi sandwiches. I'd love to try the salad version. Thank you for sharing, my friend. I hope today and this week brings many blessings and more good food!

You and I are clearly living on a different planet. Banh mi, daikon....wtf !! And, in the real world, who on earth is going to seek out a Vietmanese chicken ? And who has ever measured their lettuce by the cup !? Did your grandad run up the beach in Normandy so that you could 'deconstruct' a sandwich ? Good Grief...

Post a Comment

About Me

I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.